SERMON VII.

FOR A HOSPITAL.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING.

ACTS 20. 35.

"Ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."

THIS must appear to many a hard saying. “Who can hear it?" (John 6. 60.) Few can so hear as to believe; so believe, as to act on the conviction, that it really "is more blessed to give than to receive." If we may judge from our own experience in the community of Christ's professed disciples, "to receive" is in point of fact far the most highly esteemed of the two. A

great part of the lives of most men is spent in working in order to receive, a great part of their thoughts is occupied in considering how much they shall get. Those from whom they expect to receive, they are apt to serve with readiness and attention. And to receive from a quarter where nothing was expected, this they regard as one of the most desirable events in the whole compass of human felicity. And can it then be more blessed to give? Yes, my brethren;" it is more blessed." They are the words of the Lord Jesus. And the words which He spake, "they are spirit and they are life." (John 6. 63.) Put the blessedness of receiving as high as you please. The blessedness of giving is yet higher. Be as glad as you may to receive. You ought to be still more glad to give.

Our Lord, we should first observe, forbids not our receiving. He makes no objection to our taking what is our own, or partaking of the bounty of others. To be diligent in our respective callings, and careful of the property with which God intrusts us, this is not merely allowed, it

is our duty; lest otherwise we have the less to give to those who are in want of our assistance. So also, for the poor to take what others are disposed to give, if it be taken with humility, moderation, and thankfulness, and also with a thankful acknowledgment to the Giver of all good gifts; this receiving is altogether agreeable to the will of Him who would have us bound one to another by the ties of mutual assistance. Christ forbids not our receiving. He denies not that to receive may be a blessing. Only He assures us, that it is more blessed to give. He fixes on that sense of property, and that love of gain, which are so deeply rooted in our hearts; and the more highly we are apt to value our worldly store, the more dearly we prize its increase, He would here the more effectually enforce the delight of doing good with it, by saying, that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." To receive is indeed allowable, is indeed our duty. But to give is more, it is our Christian privilege; and it must be our high Christian delight. It must be our

glory, that hereby we may lay up treasure in heaven," (Mark 10. 21,) may lend unto the Lord, (see Prov. 19. 17,) and may approach in likeness unto the love of Him who gives us all we have, and all we hope for, even to live in holiness, and afterwards to inherit eternal glory.

To receive is indeed allowable, is oftentimes our duty; but, observe next, how many are the temptations to evil with which receiving is surrounded. Do your gains increase, how great is your danger lest you set your heart upon them! lest you become harsh in exacting your own to the uttermost, close in withholding what your neighbour claims, eager to seize even an unfair advantage, and the more you have the more to covet that which you have not! Thus it is even in this world with receiving; oftentimes more harm comes of it than good. And for the world which is to come, you well know the sentence of the Judge: "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God." (Mark 10. 23.) Not that to possess or receive riches is a sin; but

that it is hard to have them and not to trust in them. Not that it is unbecoming your Christian calling to acquire a sufficient maintenance for this present life. But that unless this pursuit be followed with constant reference to the will of God, unless the goods which we earn, or inherit, are used by us as talents to be accounted for to Christ, they will nourish in our hearts a love of this present world, in preference to the world which is to come; they will make us follow after gain more than godliness, and serve mammon instead of serving God. Never therefore in the earning of your livelihood, or in the enjoyment of your property, never forget, that to receive frequently, or to receive largely, nay, to receive at all, if it make you covetous or wasteful, hard to the poor, or prodigal of that plenty which is yours for their relief, if it make you proud, presumptuous, wilful, or worldly minded, then, instead of being a blessing it is a curse; then does then does your wealth only the more surely expose you to that fearful sentence: "Thou in thy life time re